Speaking of heat control has anyone considered these:RunCool Hood Louvers - Hood Vents For Your Vehicle - Cool Your Engine ?

 

I have. Specifically for my '99 Power Stroke. Heavy towing combined with the Arizona heat gets things pretty toasty under the hood. Haven't done it yet though....

 

I saw your PM Gary, and thanks amigo, you set my old brain searching my memory bank, for louvers, after checking the prices on the internet...$$$ not too spendy, but after counting the coins in my piggy bank, the search continues.

Baja

 

In reference to the ad for the louvers, it states, "DYNO TESTS PROVE INCREASED HORSEPOWER — WHICH ALSO MEANS BETTER GAS MILEAGE."

They're trying to sell a product.

Sort of smells like bovine excrement to me. An engine that runs hotter produces more power (basic principIes of the Ideal Gas Law) --and I'm not talking about hot to the point an engine is boiling the water out of it.

The most advanced engines are only about 20% efficient. Approximately 40% of an engines power is lost to the heat going out the exhaust pipe. Another approximately 40% of the power is consumed by the engines cooling system drawing the heat out of the combustion chambers, which causes a dramatic temperature and pressure drop in the cylinder bores, affecting the density of the air/fuel introduced and the resultant power created when it's ignited. If the chamber/cylinder bore were hotter to begin with, the propogation of the mixture would be more explosive thus, more power exerted on the crankshaft.

If an engine is hotter but not boiling the water out of it, it's going to produce more power than an engine that's running colder.

Automotive Engine - Physics and Mechanics

Controlling underhood temperatures in modern vehicles is probably more important than with older vehicles, primarily because newer vehicles have lots of electronics that older vehicles don't have and not because they're having to control engine temperatures with added vents in and around the engine compartment. If it's a case of using such devices to control ambient heat-induced engine temp problems, the engineers didn't do their job when designing the radiator and cooling system for the engine.

 

Right you are amigo, especially about the HP development. Their claims do have that barn yard smell to me too. However, cooling the engine compartment, can have added benefits, of electrical and electronic components surviving longer. HEADERS, are not part of the design in most factory production, so not in the formula for engine cooling. As you pointed outg, 40% of heat loss is through exhaust, and thin walled (like 16 to 18 ga). exhaust headers do increase the engine compartment temps. a lot more short, heavy cast exhaust manifolds.. So like most things in this world, there is more that meets the eye than a first look grants. ie, when a pretty woman walks by, even a blind man, takes a 2nd look...

Baja

 

Headers, having longer individual tubes with more exposed surface area than a cast iron exhaust manifold, would emit more radiant heat than cast iron manifolds.

However, this would mainly be a concern only at a stand still idle or when barely moving forward for long periods of time. If the vehicle is moving forward, particularly at 25 MPH or greater, the ram effect of the air coming through the radiator and into the engine compartment, as well as the radiator fan blowing back on the engine, is going to be carrying away the radiant heat as this air is passing across the engine and the exhaust manifolds/headers.

The turbulent air passing under the truck is also going to blow across the surfaces of the headers and exhaust system to cool and carry the heat away.

If a person feels there's too much radiant exhaust-generated heat saturation of their engine, there are coatings that were initially developed for the military and the racing industry that can be applied to the headers that greatly reduces its surface temperatures, which would reduce the ambient temperatures surrounding these heat sources.

One such company is Jet Hot High Performance Coatings.

Jet-Hot High Performance Coatings

This process is probably not cheap but, given the fact that pristine Bumpside hoods and body components are difficult to find and not cheap, I'd rather not be punching holes in these body panels to try and let some additional heat escape when other, less intrusive means, are available to control the production of heat.

 

on the starter or the headers?? LOL

 

Haha. A hammer tends to fix both on fords!